Thinking of You

Winter mail

| ullycatdesigns

Who doesn’t love getting mail! The most famous snowman, Frosty sure does enjoy his mail in this card celebrating wintertime mail. It uses dies by Karen Burniston to create a delightful pop-up card.

The main die sets used were the Mailbox Pop-Up and the Snowman Pop-Up. Watch the two assembly videos for tips on how to construct the pop-up snowman and mailbox by clicking on the links above before starting your card. (If I had been smart and followed my advice of watching the assembly videos before starting the card, I would have known I needed at least 5 inches from the card fold to have Frosty in his top hat and should have done a top fold card instead of a side fold vertical card.)

Because I constructed my card base before I watched the assembly videos, I had to make the snowman without his hat to fit in the card. I used the top hat and snowflake from another snowman die set by Karen Burniston.

My inspiration for this card was the Carta Bella paper pad that has a page of envelopes addressed to various North Pole and winter characters. I cut out several of the envelopes from the paper and scattered them throughout the card. The other patterned papers are from this paper pad as well.

I like creating an outer frame for my card bases covered in patterned papers. I used the medium sized crosshatched rectangle to cut the frames in the inside green plaid paper panels and I used one of these rectangles on the back of the card over a border made from paper leftovers from the inside of the card.

For the card front I constructed a background from three leftover pieces of the snowflake print. The snow in the foreground was cut using a nature edge die that cuts a stitched rolling hill with trees. The trees I cut off.

While the mailbox is designed to be inside the card as an interactive element, it can be simplified down to a flat element. I used the main mailbox, lid, flag and wood grained post dies. The brown wooden post I inked the dies with white ink to get it into the wood grain and then gently rubbed the piece over the ink cube to get a snowy effect. I added the Santa hat and snowflakes to give some hints, if the name on the mail box didn’t clue the viewer that it is Santa Claus’ mailbox. I leave it up to the viewer to decide if the small Rudolf is the real one or a winter decoration.

Using the die as a stencil, I colored with a white gel pen to shade Rudolph’s ears and tail and a black fine-tipped marker for his hooves. I used Glossy Accents over his red paper nose to look more like a light. For Rudolph’s eyes and the snowman’s coal eyes and buttons, I used Nuvo Drops. With both these products be sure to allow 12-24 hours for them to dry. (I swished Rudolph’s nose and didn’t notice until the glossy accents had almost set.)

Inside the card, the finishing touches include: a snowflake, a stitched heart, and the sentiment of “Season’s Greetings” from the Karen Burniston Word Set 3.  (I’ve been experimenting with various dies by Karen Burniston with the dotted outlines because they are easy to make stitched or embroidered charms and embellishments for cards. This heart is from the Circle Charm Pop-Up set.)

For the envelope, I made a snowman face with top hat from Karen Burniston’s Snowman set and glued all its pieces and back securely to the back flap of the envelope. Sometimes for thick cards to fit into a standard size envelope (A2 for this card) you need to trim a total of 1/4 of an inch off the non-fold sides of the card.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊

Dies:

stamps & Ink

  • Craft Smart – Ink Pad – White
  • Ink
  • Stamp
  • Sakura – Gelly Roll Pen– 08 -White
  • Sharpie – Ultra Fine-Tipped Marker – Black

Papers

  • Carta Bella – 6×6 Paper Pad of Double-Sided cardstock – Letters to Santa
  • Lightweight 8.5×11 inch white cardstock
  • Matte silver foil cardstock scrap
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • A2 Envelope

Additional Supplies Used:

You’re the G.O.A.T.

| ullycatdesigns

While being told that you’re the G.O.A.T. may sound bad, it really means You’re the Greatest Of All Time. In my family of sports players, being told you’re the G.O.A.T. after a game is common, so letting Dad know he’s the G.O.A.T. is a fun thing. This card could be used for birthdays or Father’s Day.

In challenging myself to use Karen Burniston’s Little Labels Pop-up in a vertical position, I saw the labels as shelves for trophies. Some of my inspiration comes from Sam Calcott of Mixed Up Crafts when she makes her tower cards.

I started with a 7 x 8 inches rectangle of dark blue heavy cardstock.  The side panels are made up of two panels per side. Because of my limited amount of the dark blue cardstock, I cut two panels of 3.5 x 8 inches and two more panels 4 x 8 inches. (I recommend cutting four panels of 4 x8 inches rather than having to use washi tape to attach the front panels.) Score the 4 x 8 panels at 3.5 inches to make a long tab.

Cut decorative panels ¼ inches smaller thane the base panels. Glue side panels to large base. Adhere decorative panels to card base inside panels.

If you haven’t already die-cut your inside decorative labels and trophies do so now. (I find some of the best, thick foiled silvers and golds are on personal care and food packaging such as cookie/biscuit packets.)

Also, cut and assemble all letters need for the inside sentiment. (I sort mine in a tiny bag, so I don’t lose any letters.) Die cut two of the Little Labels Pop-ups. Space out the placement of the pop-up labels and sentiment. (While I adhered my sentiment after I installed the pop-up labels, it might be easier to add the letters first and then the pop-ups.)

To adhere the letters, line them up on a grid background and place removable tape over them. (I used Post-it Note yellow tape.) I trimmed the tape down to make it easy to line up the bottom edge with the pencil line I drew on the card. I added glue to the back of one word’s letters and then placed them onto the card, pressed down to adhere and then peeling off the tape.

I watched Karen Burniston’s assembly video before I glued in my pop-up labels. (I find reviewing the videos help me before I make a mistake using my special papers.) You need at least 3.5 inches of width to close one pop-up labels panel, unless you stager the panels, you will need at least 7 inches width to close the card.  Add decorations to pop-up labels.

If you cut all the side panels at 4 x 8 inches, then fold the ½ inch tab and glue panel to other side panels. If you end up needing to tape your front panels, use the widest washi tape you have. Mine was 2 inches wide.

I used Karen Burniston’s Mini Alphabet for the inside sentiment and her original alphabet for the larger outside letters as well as parts taken from two other sentiment dies – “You’re Sweet” and “Enjoy the Ride.” I saved the tiny circles and scraps from the arms and lid of the trophies to decorate the front of the card. The goat is also a Karen Burniston die.

The belly band or belt that holds the card closed is made from scrapes and leftover pieces from other projects. This is intended as a presentation card to be hand delivered as it is too big for most standard size envelopes.

Label on back is a place to add a personal message.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Papers

  • Heavy weight dark blue and pale blue cardstock
  • Patterned papers from my stash
  • Silver and gold packaging
  • Holographic silver and gold scraps
  • Black and white cardstock scraps
  • White gold shimmer cardstock

Miscellaneous

Hello Summer Two!

| ullycatdesigns

Gumballs and relaxing on the beach are somehow tied together in my memories of summer family vacations. This card incorporates some new crafting supplies that came into my crafting room.

The gumball machine is one I’ve been eyeing from Stampin’ Up for a while. The tropical background paper is from Scrapbook.com. “Hello Summer” die-cut is from Tutti Designs and has its various elements cut from colored scraps and glued to a whole brown die-cut.

To make the inside message more legible I used some colored adhesive backed vellum which Messed up on the stamping and covered with the stamped sentiment on blue cardstock.

The card fits into an A7 size envelope which has been stamped on the back with a gumball machine.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

  • Stampin’ Up – Dies – Gumball Machine – 157647

Stamps

  • Stampin’ Up – Photopolymer Stamp Set – Gumball Greetings -157646

Inks

  • StazOn Solvent Ink – Jet Black

Papers

  • Scrapbook Customs – 12×12 double-sided – Retro Tropical Islands -DS#30505b
  • Silver foiled cardstock from toothpaste box
  • Multicolors of paper scraps
  • Xcut – Xtras Adhesive Vellum Sheets- yellow
  • A7 brown craft paper card base and envelope

Shaker Elements

  • Stampin’ Up – Gumball Machine Shaker Domes – 158131
  • Stampin’ Up – Frosted Beads Assortment – 158132

Miscellaneous

Squeeze The Day!

| ullycatdesigns

Sometimes life keeps throwing lemons at people. I am always amazed at how individuals keep smiling through it all and even find time to do kind things for others as well. This is a card for those smiling individuals that know how to make lemonade out of what life throws at them.

Using the Vintage Lemon Twist papers by Simple Stories and the You Shine stamp set both in the Simon Says Stamp! July 2022 Card Kit of the Month, I crafted this card with dies from Karen Burniston, Divinity Designs, Crafter’s Companion, Made to Surprise and Oriental Trading.

The front of the card is made from the paper collection with Nuvo Drops, buttons and a tiny ribbon bow from my stash. A symmetry is a theme for this card. The back of the card is a collage of leftover pieces from making the rest of the card. (I decorated both the inside and outside of the card base because the card base was thin cardstock. I adhered the papers with double side tape and an occasional drop of glue.

I had the idea of a pitcher of lemonade pouring into a glass with a lemon slice as the inside interactive mechanism of the card. After looking at a number of Karen Burniston pop-up/interactive dies, I settled on the Mailbox Pop-Up after watching a video by Karen using the mechanism for a double spinner card which I adapted into a tilting pitcher. I cut from scrap cardstock, a template of the mailbox to know where to cut the square opening in my decorative scalloped circle (Made to Surprise). After trimming the lower lever mechanism off, I folded the piece as directed in the video and trimmed the small section off one edge that would not be covered by the scalloped circle.

Using clear vellum to resemble glass, I die cut two tumblers (Divinity Designs) and fitted a scrap of vellum behind the die-cut pale blue pitcher (Crafter’s Companion). Using a bright yellow marker, I colored the back side of the vellum as the lemonade. I always color the edges of exposed vellum with a black marker to make them more defined. From the backing paper from some adhesive sheets that I had saved because the paper had a shiny yellow surface, I cut some lemon slices (Divinity Designs) for the tumblers and pitcher.

The lemonade sentiment is from the You Shine stamp set and is heat embossed with black ink and clear embossing powder. Once heat embossed, I die cut the sentiment out with a wave oval die from oriental Trading. I cut a second oval of plain white cardstock as the sentiment for a personal message to be added.

Black backgrounds inside the card make the white scalloped circle and ovals pop. Small scraps of the yellow printed paper were used to balance out the inside decorations.

The card fits into an A2 size envelope which has been stamped on the front with a lemon slice and back flap with a whole lemon. the back flap image is colored with markers. All the stamps are from the Simon Says Stamp You Shine stamp set.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks

Papers

  • Pattern papers by Simple Stories – Vintage Lemon Twist
  • Clear vellum scraps
  • White cardstock scraps
  • Shiny yellow paper scraps
  • A2 white card base and envelope

Miscellaneous

Just Peachy

| ullycatdesigns

It is almost peach season where I live and there will be pop-up fruit stands on the side of the road with Georgia peaches for sale by the bushel.  To honor this up-coming season, I’ve made a peachy card using stamps and stencils by The Greetery from 2020.

If you have not used layered stencils before I highly recommend watching the demo video for the stencils and stamp set. There is a paper guide included in the set, but I would have missed learning about the etched markings on the stencils that helps to line-up the various layers.

I used three colors of ink to get the rosy glow on the peaches. Using a large blending brush, I inked blend first a layer of the Citrine yellow followed by a light brushing of Sunbeam orange and then for highlights, I brushed lightly Grapefruit Grove pink. I stamped the shading on with the Grapefruit Grove ink.

For the leaves, I used a base ink blending with a finger dauber of Pear Pizzazz light green and stamped the Emerald Green leaf highlights. The peach stems are stamped with a dark brown ink cube that was in my stash. I used the same brown ink to stamp the sentiments using the Just Peachy Sentiment stamps.

The stencils are designed for a 4 ¼ inch x 5 ½ inch card. I stenciled onto a scrape piece of white cardstock and trimmed down to 4 inches by 5 ½ inches, and then backed it with a 4 ½ inch by 6-inch green mat. These dimensions work well with the 5-inch x 6 ½ inch card base I used.

For the inside and back of the card, I stamped two tiny peaches which I fussy cut and glued in place. The sentiment words were fussy cut with the phrase “Hope you’re felling” edged with a green marker. Foam squares were used to adhere the words and add dimension to the card. A piece of gingham ribbon was glued to the back of the green mat before the entire card front was glued to the cardbase.

To hint at the envelope’s contents, I stamped in a small peach and a peach slice on the back flap and a tiny peach on the front of the envelope.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Stamps

Inks

  • Crayola Signature Blending Markers

Papers

  • White and green card tock
  • A7 white card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous

Bee-utiful Flowery Painting

| ullycatdesigns

Bees, fresh paint and tulips seem like harbingers of Spring as we humans come out of winter hibernation.  I had some of the paint brush die sets from the Spellbinder’s Paint Your World Collection by Vicky Papaioannou as well as the Picket Fence Studio’s I Bee Fierce stamp set by Nicole Peterson on my crafting desk and thought they went well together. 

Having die-cut four sets of paint brushes from three of the die sets, I set about assembling the brushes noting that the handle pieces are not interchangeable, but all three sets have the same bristles die. I glued one layer of bristles to the back of each handle and another layer of bristles to the back of the silver band. Next, I studied the packaging for decorative ideas on the placement of the tulips within the bristles. I glued in place the leaves and flowers once I had figured out their placement in the two layers of bristles. I decided to ink blend some pink Distress Ink onto white cardstock scraps before die-cutting the paint drips.  I applied glue the silver band layer just on the back of the band and then placed it on top of the handle layer matching up the two lines on the band with the lines on the handle. Once the paint drips were dry, they were glued to the back of the assembled paint brushes.

Following the design rule of odd numbers of elements, I knew I had to stamp three elements to make the card front flow. Another design trick is to suggest movement by placing things on the diagonal.

I stamped the front, back and inside of the card before I adhered the paint brushes to the card. Stamping is easy when you use a stamping platform with stamping tool to help apply even pressure to the stamps. The back of the card is stamped using a Technique Tuesday stamp set.

The front sentiment is “I am little but I bee fierce,” while the inside says, “Be like the bee… fly despite the risks.” The back of the card states “This is a random act of cardiness.”

The envelope back was stamped with another sentiment from the Picket Fence set as well as the smaller bee. It says “that hum you hear is the sound of the mighty bee recreating our world with love, song and perseverance.”

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

Inks & Pigments

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Abandon Coral
  • Memento Fade-Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Nuvo Highly Pigmented Watercolour Pencil – Golden Canary

Papers

  • Heavyweight white cardstock
  • Colored cardstock scraps
  • Coated cardstock from junk mail
  • Silver mirrored cardstock from packaging
  • Brown #10 business envelope

Miscellaneous

Olga’s Garden

| ullycatdesigns

Olga Direktorenko is the creative designer behind the Paper Discovery brand sold by Craftstash out of the UK and carried by Paper Wishes in the USA. I love her dimensional dies sets that often feel like creating a doll’s house or miniature scenes.

On Craftworld, she talks of her garden with vegetables and Ukrainian sunflowers in one of her video demos. This card is my first time out using her Garden Delight dies which are copyrighted in 2021. I purchased them from Paper Wishes.

The side dies cut and score accordion folds that easily create tunnel-like cards. Her garden accessories allow for fun details, but like doll house accessories, not all are on the same scale. I placed the wheelbarrow in the middle layer because I felt it was of a larger scale than the picket fence.

I colored the garden frame using colored papers. The flowered vines reminded me of purple morning glories common in the USA. I cut the frame die, several times in several colors to fussy cut and glue the vines, flowers, birds, rope, bird houses and ladder on to the white base frame.

For the sunflowers have two flower head dies and are intended to be glued on top of each other with the petals alternating to create a full flower. Using a black gel pen, I colored the seed heads that are embossed with the die.

The white lattice background is glued to some blue patterned paper recycled from an envelope.

The sentiment “Hello Sunshine” is a die-cut from Sue Wilson of Creative Expressions. (While there are stamps that go with the Garden Delights collection there are no sentiments.)

This card will collapse to fit into a 5 inch by 7 inch envelope.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this blog post, please like it and follow the blog. 😊

Dies

Inks

  • Black gel pen

Papers

  • White cardstock
  • Colored cardstock and paper scraps (recycled envelopes and junk mail)
  • Blue patterned scrap paper (inside of envelope)
  • Hunkydory mirri card from the oxidized metals collection

Additional Supplies:

  • We R Memory Keepers – Quickstik Tool
  • Low tack tape

Sending Violet Hugs

| ullycatdesigns

In the language of flowers, violets mean remembrance. Sometimes there aren’t words to express the comfort a hug can bring when someone is suffering a loss.  This card is meant to be up-lifting and offering comfort and hope.

Using recent PoppyStamps Flower Field Tall Curve Border, Penelope Pinpoint Frame and Sending Hugs Poe Script dies to create this card front, I used the solid green back of a striped A2 card base to be the background to the lattice work. Thin foam squares were used to raise the lattice frame off the green card base. (Dies-R-Us often stocks PoppyStamps dies as well as other name brand dies and stamps at discounted prices. The links under the Materials Used section links to Dies-R-Us.)

Scrap white cardstock was ink blended on both sides to create the die-cut violets. Four times the flower border was cut with the two glued to the front of the white lattice work frame.  The remaining borders were cut apart and the petals were bent to curl upward. These flowers were glued at the center to the base border flowers using a hand-held stylus with a tiny round tip to move and push the flower centers down into the glue. A dot of yellow Nuvo Drops completed the center of each flower.

The “Sending Hugs” was die cut from matte gold cardstock which was found on cookie packaging.

The inside sentiment “Happiness blooms from within” is from a new stamp set by PoppyStamps – Colorful Life. Another sentiment, “Bloom and Grow,” is from the same sent and is stamped in a gold ink on the envelope flap.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • PoppyStamps – Clear Stamp Set – Colorful Life – CL509

Inks

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz’s Distress Oxide Ink – Chipped Sapphire, Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky, Prize Ribbon
  • Stampin’ Up – Classic Stampin’ Pad – Crumb Cake

Papers

  • Lightweight white cardstock
  • Matte gold cardstock
  • A2 green striped card base and white envelope

Miscellaneous